JUNE 1 2019 LISTENER 47
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he Royal New Zealand Ballet’s
connection with Swan Lake
stretches back to its days
as a fledgling company.
Tchaikovsky’s 1876 classic
featured in the then New
Zealand Ballet’s first season in
1953.
It’s appeared in the repertoire in most of
the decades since, most recently in 2013,
when Russell Kerr’s production toured the
country as part of the RNZB’s 60th-birth-
day celebrations.
Now, though, the feathered headpieces
and fairy-tale love story have been
tossed aside for Black Swan, White
Swan, a contemporary, psychologically
powered reinterpretation that sprang
from its Czech choreographer’s facing his
mortality.
Mário Radačovský spent six months
in hospital in the Netherlands having
cancer treatment in his mid-twenties.
Black swans graced the pond outside thehospital window.
“I had this idea that, if I
survived, I would do a ballet
about swans, or my own version
of Swan Lake,” the 47-year-old
tells the Listener from the Czech
Republic where he is artistic director
of ballet for the National Theatre Brno.
“Often in the classical story, everything
is about the woman, the female. It’s how
I see Swan Lake. This version is about
Siegfried, the prince, and, specifically, his
life and my life: what changed when I
was ill.”
RNZB artistic director Patricia Barker
originally commissioned Radačovský’s
work in her previous role at the
Grand Rapids Ballet in the US. She
says it’s a “Swan Lake for the 21st
century”.That means traditional ballet fans look-
ing for the opulent costumes and dazzling
sets of Kerr’s Swan Lake will have to adjust.
Gone are the white flouncy tutus, elabo-
rate courtier costumes and those bonnets.
Instead, the female dancers wear white
leotards and shorts and the men wear
suits – the costumes were designed by
Barker – and the set is minimalist.
Radačovský’s production is
set to Tchaikovsky’s original
score. But a difference from the
original is that the story follows
Siegfried’s journey rather than
that of the swans. Caught between
two women, the Black Swan and the
White – no longer called Odette and
Odile – he struggles with ideal love,
pure evil, temptation and, most of
all, himself. Siegfried’s tormentor,
Baron von Rothbart, is no longer
a wizard figure but his alter ego,
which makes for a psychologi-
cal battle between the two lead
male dancers.T
he production combines
Radačovský’s deep love of classical
ballet with the stripped-down neo-
classical aesthetic that defined his many
years dancing with the Nederlands Dans
Theater under world-renowned choreog-
rapher Jiří Kylián.“I had this idea that, if
I survived, I would do
a ballet about swans,or my own version of
Swan Lake.”Creativity and intelligence: Royal New Zealand
Ballet dancers Nadia Yanowsky and Katharine
Precourt in their Black Swan, White Swan
costumes. Right, Joseph Skelton and Marie
Varlet in rehearsal.ST
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